Working a part-time or casual job during your education years can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.
There’s so much that a part-time job can teach you about life that the education system never could.
From human interaction like how to manage workplace relations, to financial advice like how to manage money, how to control your savings and how to ensure that you have enough savings to live comfortably.
These are all things that are so important in adult life and should be learned early through part-time jobs.
Some jobs, however, are a bit more rewarding than others, whether it be monetary or simply because they allow you to gain more experience.
In general, the best part-time jobs for students are those that challenge you and are therefore more rewarding because you get that constant learning curve.
As a student, you’re young and you have flexibility, so you don’t want to be tied down to a job that restricts you too much. Rather, you should be able to experience new things and learn from both your opportunities and challenges.
Related:
- How to Earn up to $50+/hr as a Private Tutor
- What You Need to Know Before Starting a Casual Job After High School
- How to Manage the Income You Earn on a Casual Job as a Student
Customer Service Job
Spending a few hours of your weekend working at the local shopping centre serving customers and helping them with their needs can be a very rewarding experience but can also exercise your patience.
Working in a customer service based role can introduce you to people from all walks of life, which can open your eyes to the world around you.
However, the downside of working in a customer service job is that you can get difficult customers quite often, which can really test your patience.
I do think that every student should work a customer-based role at least once in their life as it can teach you a lot about dealing with difficult people and help you develop your interpersonal skills.
Popular Options:
Bartending
Bartending is one of the more popular job options for college/university students, most likely because it’s a place that university students frequent.
If there’s one job that can really test your patience with different kinds of people, then it’s this one. Dealing with drunk patrons is definitely a whole new experience than dealing with sober ones.
Waiter/Waitress at a Cafe or Restaurant
This is a great job option for building people skills and learning to converse with strangers.
As with all customer service-based roles, this job can definitely test your patience if you run into any difficult customers but can be very rewarding if learn how to keep your emotions in check.
Cashier
This is one of the more popular job options that most students have worked in at least once in their education years and is definitely recommended as a starter job.
Being a cashier is a relatively easy job to complete and very easy to learn. You get to learn about how to handle money and see first-hand how transactions happen in a business.
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On-Campus Jobs
If you live on campus or spend a lot of time there, a great option would be finding a job on-campus. One of the best benefits of working where you study is that you get to meet so many other students that may or may not be studying courses similar to you.
If you’re comfortable with striking up a conversation with your customers, then you could potentially make a lot of new friends from a variety of degrees and courses.
Universities typically have a website where they list out all of the jobs on offer so definitely check it out if it’s convenient for you.
There are so many different ways to earn money on campus, from being a library assistant or receptionist, to participating in a research study, there’s definitely a job out there that you can complete. The pay rate is generally pretty good considering that educational institutions are more likely to abide by workplace laws.
Tutoring
Tutoring other students is a very popular option for a part-time job, especially among university students.
If you excel at a particular subject, it can be very rewarding to teach another student, especially since you are able to learn more through teaching. Depending on if you decide to tutor privately or with a centre, the pay rate can vary, but tutoring usually pays quite a bit above average.
How to Earn up to $50+/hr as a Private Tutor
Marking Other Students’ Work
Some tutoring centres even offer the option of marking other students’ homework. The pay rate is generally lower than a tutor’s but it’s less tiring and there’s a lot less mental work involved.
Be a Teacher in Something You’re Good At
if there’s a smart way to make money as a student, then it’s by teaching others something that you’re good at or really enjoy. This way, work doesn’t really feel like work, and you get to earn some money from it.
Perhaps If you enjoy playing the piano and you have some qualifications to show for your skill, then you could look into becoming a piano teacher for younger kids.
Job Options Within Your Hobbies
Another way to make your work enjoyable is to find work that relates to a hobby that you have. If you enjoy playing a particular sport, you may want to consider becoming a coach or an umpire.
There might be certain accreditations that you will need to get but the result could be that you get to coach a lower grade team in something that you love doing yourself.
- If you enjoy reading and find yourself doing it a lot in your spare time, you could become a proofreader and proofread others’ work for a fee.
- If you enjoy writing and have a talent for it, taking up freelance writing could be an option for you.
- If you like crafts and DIY, you could take up a job at the local arts and crafts centre teaching kids how to make crafts.
- If you love photography and have a passion for it, consider starting up a small business to shoot local weddings or events.
There are unlimited options out there if you know how to look and you’re willing to put in the effort but I do believe that you should find a job that challenges you in some way.
Start a Blog
Starting a blog can an extremely rewarding experience, especially if you enjoy writing and creating content. As a student, having a blog can improve your writing skills immensely and you get a preview into the vast online world of the internet.
Writing in any form can encourage discipline. Just the act of thinking a sentence through and writing it out can improve your logic and the way that your mind forms ideas.
With a blog, you can learn a set of skills that you may not get from any other part-time job, but at the same time, there are also a lot of skills that can’t be learned from sitting behind a computer screen. So if you do decide to start a blog, you may want to consider working on it while you also have another part-time job.
If you’re ready to start a blog now, head over to Bluehost, choose your hosting plan, set up WordPress and you’re good to go! With my link, you can get a free domain for the first year if you sign up for 12 months or more of hosting for only $3.95 a month!
Read more at The Comprehensive Guide to Starting a Blog.
Regardless of which type of job you go for, you will end up learning something and growing as a person during the whole process. The best part-time jobs for students are those that allow you to challenge yourself and develop core skills that will benefit you greatly in your adult life.
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